itsme

From both medical and legal perspectives, one would want to know a great deal more about Mr. Finneran both before and after this extraordinary episode. While alcohol suggests itself as the most likely explanation for the (mis)conduct, other causes can be imagined. For example, Finneran was identified as an investment banker traveling internationally and so it may be assumed that he was only temporarily deranged. Suppose, though, he had been quietly slipping into dementia for some time, even while continuing to work as an investment banker. (It has never happened that an individual continued in a high-powered position after no longer being fully capable of performing in that position?) There are other possibilities beyond simple "bad behavior" or "stinking drunk," too.

If I had been the lawyer defending Finneran, I would have had him seen by well-qualified neurologists and psychiatrists and thoroughly evaluated as quickly as possible.

[PS Does anyone think it would be relevant to know if he was a 2P, 1P, 1K, or even a UGS?]

Alcohol - there is the phenomenon of "pathological intoxication," with susceptible individuals becoming intoxicated after amounts that would not have so great an effect on most, then becoming violent or otherwise doing bad things. "Pathologic intoxication" has been offered as an exculpatory excuse when individuals are faced with the consequences of their conduct. The military is especially unreceptive to such excuses, perhaps understandably. If someone seeks to be excused on the basis of "pathologic intoxication," it may be answered that "pathologic intoxication" cannot be proven on the basis of one isolated experience. If the military member would offer as evidence a history of previous such episodes, he/she might be told that having experienced such before, he/she should have known never to imbibe again, and that imbibing again in the face of such self-knowledge constituted misconduct itself and warranted punishment.

I do wonder what happened to Mr. Finneran afterwards. Perhaps he never transgressed again, let alone defecated on another food card, least of all one in the first class section. (With fewer meals served these days, is this sort of thing less likely to repeat itself?) But perhaps he did not return to "normal," instead deteriorating further as the consequence of some organic mental disorder.